This invention relates to a device for displaying and/or holding relatively thin, lightweight objects, such as medical or dental appointment cards, photographs, sketches, coupons, post cards, theatrical tickets, shopping lists, calendars, etc. in a generally vertical manner, such as attached to a refrigerator door or the like. More particularly, the invention is directed to an apparatus having a base and releasably attached storage and/or display compartments of various sizes. The releasably attached compartments can be composed of transparent and/or non-transparent material and disposed in various configurations for attachment to a base surface that is disposed in a generally vertical plane.
While the invention is particularly directed to the art of accessory and/or display holders, and will be thus described with specific reference thereto, it will be appreciated that the invention may have usefulness in other fields and applications.
A wide variety of holding apparatus that are attachable to some type of vertical surface, such as a refrigerator door or the like, are known. However, those known lack a number of convenient features, such as detachable pockets or storage compartments. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,853 to O'Mara discloses a flexible magnetized holder with pockets for accessories such as note pads, books, pens, tissues, or the like, which allows for convenient placement on and removal from ferromagnetic surfaces such as locker doors and refrigerator doors. The material forming the pockets of O'Mara, however, is generally opaque and is sewn or glued to the base. Consequently, the pockets are not detachable and/or transparent.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,219 to Mink discloses a jewelry storage container including a generally planar flexible web shaped member on which is mounted a plurality of compartments. These compartments, however, are not detachable. The advantage of being able to detach the pocket, or storage compartment, is that a user can simply detach and carry along a whole pocket if he/she so desires. This obviates the need to remove any objects from the pocket, thus, reducing the risk of losing or destroying the objects. For example, a whole pocket of coupons can be conveniently detached and brought with the user to a retail store.
Additionally, detachable pockets allow the user to configure the various pockets on the holding and/or display apparatus in any convenient fashion, thereby providing for a wide variety of configurations. This provides the user of the holding and/or display apparatus with the flexibility to design and redesign the apparatus dependent upon individual tastes, storage and/or display needs.